Final Fantasy VI: Remix
by CitizenOfZozo
Summary: A power-hungry empire seeks to enslave the world using the long-forgotten art of magic. Humanity's only hope lies in a mysterious young woman with strange powers and no memory of why she has them...
1. Prologue

The mountains towered in the distance, a great hulking mass of jagged peaks cutting across the horizon. The landscape was stark, snow drifting down from the northern mountains to litter the fields of shriveled, brown grass. Footprints cut a trail across the frozen wasteland up to an overhanging ledge, each indentation over six feet long. The two-story war machines stood like barren trees clinging to the cliff edge, blowing snow swirling around their bird-like feet and drifting through the chinks in their heavy iron plating. The faces of the soldiers seated at the heads of the armoured machines were lined, their gazes hard and faces weathered from the long journey. They didn't react as the biting wind stabbed at their faces and whipped their hair about.

"There's the town," stated Biggs, nodding westward.

Wedge followed his eyes to a cluster of lights huddling at the base of the mountains against the deepening dusk, the steady, pale yellow glow of electric lamps. "Hard to believe an esper's been found intact there after a thousand years."

Biggs shook his head slowly. "Do you really think it could still be alive?"

The lines on Wedge's face deepened. "Who knows? It's not like there are any surviving records from the War of the Magi. We have no idea what an esper is going to be like."

Biggs frowned as he glanced over his shoulder. A third Magitech armour stood between them a few paces back. A young woman sat at the helm, green eyes staring unseeing ahead as ringlets of emerald hair blew over her face, skin showing hardly more colour than the snow that drifted through the air. She also showed no reaction to the bitter cold, though her neck and collarbone remained exposed to the elements.

Biggs shot a glance over to Wedge, who had also turned to gaze at the woman. Their comrades had described the same blank gaze on her face when she single-handedly destroyed dozens of similar armoured units.

"Think it'll react to her?"

Wedge's eyes narrowed faintly. "That's what we're here to find out." Biggs straightened in his seat, his gaze drifting towards the town once more. "If the reports are right, this thing's been trapped in a block of ice for a thousand years."

"Yeah," Biggs replied, "but how many times since then has a natural magic user seen it?" Wedge glanced distractedly off to the side, and Biggs caught a glimpse of the uneasiness he knew his comrade felt.

Casting it off, Wedge raised his head once more. "Let's go."

--

Burn marks scored the streets and buildings around the trail the armoured machines cut through the town. City guards had long stopped approaching by the time the war machines reached the mines on the far side of town. The bodies of their brethren, scorched and trampled, lay in the armours' wake.

At the boarded-up entrance to a mine shaft, Biggs and the young woman watched Wedge standing before them. He adjusted a lever in his machine's cockpit, the enormous metal arm reaching forward and pointing at the barricade. The droning whirr of the armour's power source grew, the noise rising to a high-pitched roar as light flared out from the palm of the machine's clawed hand.

Suddenly, the machine rocked as a beam of light shot out of the armour's outstretched hand. Thunder filled the mine, the rock walls quaking with the crackle of the beam of energy. The boulders, boards, and bars blocking their path crumbled underneath the attack, rubble exploding inward as the mine yawned open before them.

The hum of Wedge's machine faded as its torso sank forward briefly. After a moment, the armour's power restored and it stood upright.

"Let's go."

Biggs and the young woman fell into step behind Wedge as he ventured into the shadows of the tunnel, dust hanging heavy in the air. The clangs of their armours' feet against the floor echoed against the walls, their footsteps ringing throughout the mine.

At last, they came to the end of the tunnel and into a large, open chamber with no other exits. Ahead, a protrusion of rock rose as high into the air as their armour, crude stairs carved into the stone leading up to the platform. Wedge froze in place as he glimpsed the form perched atop it.

An iridescent bird lay encased in a jagged block of ice, more strange and wondrous than anything the soldiers had ever seen. It was larger than a man, with wings spread, talons out, and beak open to cry. Nothing about the frozen esper moved, yet somehow it seemed more alive than they did.

Slowly, Wedge approached, Biggs and the woman following in his steps. They paused at the base of the platform, gazing at the esper. None of them could find words.

Abruptly, the woman moved her machine forward, its clawed feet climbing the stairs toward the frozen creature.

"Hey!" Biggs exclaimed, startled.

"Get back here!" Wedge snapped. "That's an order!"

Ignoring him, the young woman continued up the stairs until she stood face to face with the esper. The blank mask on her face broke, a hint of conflict and uncertainty creeping into her eyes as she stared at the unmoving bird. The rocks around them seemed to resonate with energy.

Growling in frustration, Wedge turned his armour and began climbing the stairs after the girl. Halfway up, its foot landed stiffly. He screamed as machine and pilot dissolved, scattering like ashes on the air.

"Wedge!" Biggs cried, his heart leaping in terror. He hesitated, gaze flickering between the girl and the exit.

Before he could react, he let out an inhuman howl as he disintigrated with his armour, leaving the woman alone in the cave with the esper.

The girl remained as frozen as the esper, gazing into its dead eyes from the seat of her armour. She didn't react as the chamber filled with a cool blue light. The glow glinted off the beady black eyes of the bird, and the ice encasing it shimmered with energy. Soon, the warmth of it crept beneath her skin, igniting her flesh with a pale light that matched the bird's. The chamber crackled with energy around her, stalactites jostled free from the ceiling crashing into the floor of the mine.

The light and energy intensified, filling her awareness, until she knew nothing else.


	2. Chapter 1: Awakening

Her head pounded as she began to awaken. The world around her was quiet and warm, and it swam dizzingly. Slowly, her stomach settled and vision cleared as she opened her eyes. She lay on a small bed in a simple room. Outside the window, a breeze swirled snow through the air. Moaning, she sat up and clutched her head, the blankets slipping down off her body and exposing the short, patterned red dress she wore.

A door opened. Looking up, she found a middle-aged man standing at the entrance to the room. He smiled at her.

"Where am I?" she stated before he could speak.

"You're safe for now," he answered patiently. She swung her legs off the bed, clenching her teeth against the fading pain in her head.

"What happened?" She shook her head. "I can't remember anything."

The man nodded slowly. "That's understandable, considering what happened."

"No," she stated distractedly. "I don't remember anything at all." She tried to wrack her mind for some memory to cling to, but it was as if she had never lived before this day.

The man's arms fell slowly as his eyes widened. "Oh. I see." He smiled once more. "Well, don't worry. It'll come back to you, in time."

"Terra," she stated, the word coming subconsciously to her lips. She turned the name over in her head, recognizing it immediately. "My name is Terra Branford."

The man shifted, and she looked up to find his smile warmer. "It's nice to meet you, Terra. My name is Jarvis."

She glanced up at him. "You... helped me?"

Jarvis nodded. "No one deserves to be left out in the cold. Besides, you didn't seem like the Imperial soldier type."

Terra's brow furrowed. "Imperial?" The word tickled her mind, a shadow as faint and fleeting as the flap of a butterfly wing.

He shook his head. "Never mind. Why don't you come into the living room? The boiler heat doesn't distribute very well. I have a fire going." He turned to walk out of the room. Stepping into her boots, Terra stood. She paused and glanced out the window. Snow was falling outside. She stared hard at the falling flakes, feeling something vaguely familiar about the sight, but nothing stirred. Shaking her head, she followed the older man out of the room.

Jarvis smiled as she entered the living room, his form glowing from the flickering light of a hearth fire. As she approached him, she turned her head to gaze at the flames. A strange shape seemed to glow within them. She tilted her head curiously as she examined it.

Suddenly--

_Destruction. Ashes and molten embers. Charred husks of machines as flames shoot out of her hands._

She threw herself back with a gasp.

"What is it?" Jarvis asked, concerned.

Terra glanced away, hand laid against her temple from a surging headache. "Nothing."

Jarvis cocked his head to the side and took a half-step forward, his voice hesitant. "Do you remember anything about what happened?"

She shook her head. Slowly, she turned to him, considering what he had said and the vision she experienced. "Did I... do something wrong?"

He sighed as he crossed the room to a shelf against the wall. "Whatever you did, I don't think you meant to do it." He picked up an item on the shelf and strode over to her. "I found you wearing this." She examined the object in his hands. It was a headband of iron, simple and harsh. "When I took it off you, life seemed to come back into your eyes." She reached a hand toward it. "I think it might have something to do with your memory loss, and your actions before then."

As her fingers brushed the rough iron surface, a wave of energy washed over her, dark and malicious, and in a flash, an image flared in her mind.

_Bound to a chair in a tiny metal room, struggling against her bonds, thrashing her head as a figure approaches._

She drew back several paces, shuddering from the hint of memory. Even as it came, it was hazy at best, but the emotions of the memory clung to her. Terror, desperation, isolation, the hopelessness of being utterly trapped.

Jarvis only gazed at her worriedly as she rubbed her hand, trying to push away the memory. "I... think you're right."

He quickly replaced the headband on the shelf. "Are you hungry?"

She shook her head, not facing him. "I'm alright." She turned as the floorboards creaked under Jarvis's steps. "What did I do?"

He laid a hand on her shoulder with a soft smile. "Let's have lunch first."

**

She awoke to pounding on the front door. She could hear Jarvis's frustrated hiss in the living room. "I knew it was only a matter of time before they came." Quickly rising, Terra slipped on her boots and approached the doorway.

"Open up! Give us back the girl and the armour!"

Terra blinked. "Armour?" They weren't talking about a suit of armour, and they weren't talking about one. How she knew, she couldn't say.

"Hold on!" Jarvis called. "Hold your horses!" Turning, he gestured furiously at Terra. "Go out the back door! The bridge will take you into the mines."

The pounding against the door persisted. "Open this door, in the name of the Empire!" Terra stood frozen, fear choking her and holding her still.

"Hurry! Get out of here!" Jarvis persisted, pushing her in the direction of the back door next to the bedroom where she had been staying. Roused, she ran over to the door.

"Wait!"

Terra paused. Jarvis held out a sheathed short sword. "Take this." Hesitating briefly, Terra grasped the weapon as Jarvis called out to the people at the door. She laid a hand on the doorknob, but paused as she glanced back at the older man.

"Thank you."

He smiled. "Good luck. Now go!"

Nodding, Terra slipped out the door into the frigid air blowing down from the mountain. Creeping along the walkways connecting the upper stories of the houses, she tried to glance down through the grate floor at the people pounding furiously at Jarvis's door. As she peered around the corner of his house, she spotted people in uniform, muskets and swords at their sides. Holding her breath, she continued toward the bridge leading towards the distant mines at a crouch. Snowflakes bit coldly at her skin as they fell on her and her breath came out in clouds. She ignored the cold as she crawled onto the bridge. If she could make it across the main street and into the caves beyond, she would be safe.

Suddenly, a voice called out, "There she is!"

Gasping, she turned, spying the soldiers on the ground, pointing up at her. Abandoning caution, she threw herself to her feet and raced toward the open mines. Soldiers barked out orders behind her and she could hear the distant pounding of running feet behind the clatter of her own boots on the metal walkway. Soon, her feet fell on stone and she raced into the mine shaft.

She skidded to a hasty stop, pebbles turned up by her boots tumbling down a chasm opening up inside the mountain. She paused, catching her breath. The mine shaft was wide, amply lit with torches lining the walls. Picks and hammers littered the floor and boulders lay against the ground beneath the walls from which they were cut. It was clearly an old mine, as the jagged edges of the walls had eroded, and the rails for the mine carts had rusted half to dust.

Catching her breath, Terra continued at a rushed, but cautious pace. The mine closed in around her, trapping her in a timeless world of firelit stone. The squeaks of rats rang through the caves, bats fluttering away as she strode deeper into the mine. She clutched the sword Jarvis had given her like a beacon of strength.

Minutes stretched on as she navigated the winding tunnels of the mine, though it could have been hours. Between the silence and her furiously pounding heart, she had no way to tell how long she strode through the caves. Her mind turned over the events that had passed, but without remembering anything about her life or what she had done, she could discern little. Her stomach growled from hunger and her eyes began to grow heavy.

Then, she turned a corner and saw soldiers emerge from a staircase down the hall. As soon as she saw them, they saw her.

"Got her!"

Turning, she began racing back the way she came, but lurched to a stop after a few paces, as several more soldiers approached down that tunnel. She backed away toward the bend in the corridor, glancing between the groups of soldiers advancing on her. She was trapped. She drew the sword sheathed at her hip with shaking hands, though she knew she didn't stand a chance against all of them.

As her foot fell on the back corner of the wall, stone crumbled and the floor gave out beneath her. With a shriek, she lost her balance and plummeted through the gap in the floor to a chamber twenty feet below. She cried out as she slammed into the floor, stones crashing down around her. Lights flared in front of her eyes and her head pounded.

Weakly, her senses seeming detached from herself, she rolled over and tried to get to her feet, but her arms gave out and she collapsed, the voices of the soldiers above falling silent as everything grew dark.


End file.
